


she takes his hand (it's quiet uptown)

by LadyAllana



Series: Morgan's Men [1]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Post-Endgame
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-25
Updated: 2019-04-25
Packaged: 2020-01-31 20:24:08
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,330
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18598765
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyAllana/pseuds/LadyAllana
Summary: Spoilers for Endgame.They form a special bond born out of circumstance and metal.It's the Stark way.





	she takes his hand (it's quiet uptown)

Morgan hates to admit it, but it took her quite a long time to figure out what “loss” meant. It’s really unusual too, because Morgan usually understands stuff quickly, especially when it’s her dad who tells her about them. She knows about the snap, knows that her family, among many many other people, were hurt immensely by it but she was born after. she has never really “lost” anything. Even when she misplaced her toys or books, Friday would always find them for her. She spends hours sitting on the couch alone now that she isn't allowed to the garage without her dad to chaperone their many dangerous but immensely fun experiments. She holds a pillow on her lap and plays with the stitching instead of reading a book or watching something on her tablet. Nap times come and go, but sleep doesn't come. 

 

            It is frustrating, to say the least. Mommy brings her milk and sits with her silently whenever she gets like this, she never forces Morgan to go to bed or do something useful with her time. Morgan sits there until the urge to do something goes away and she can actually think about something other than this disturbing, belly ache like sensation.

 

            Normally whenever she got restless, daddy took her out to the lake for many different experiments. There were endless things in nature to learn, he had told her before she learned her programming. In the end, they had reached a compromise that made mommy happy and Morgan was allowed to do both with her dad. Her dad hasn’t been home for a couple of months now, but she remembers before that there was a time he only came in sometimes. Morgan can't go outside to experiment anymore unless it's weekend and mommy and Rhodey can go with her. Daddy doesn't join them but he said he was busy, busy with big complex stuff Morgan was too young to understand.

 

            Morgan thinks she could understand the numbers on his screen.

 

            She just doesn't know what they mean. 

 

            It was the same with the video she and Mommy and Happy and Rhodey and the others watched all together and the ceremony.

 

            She understood the concept of what was going on, she knew that they were throwing a funeral service saying goodbye to daddy, as mommy told her to do, but she didn’t know what it really meant. She just went through the motions, then got a cheeseburger with Peter and Happy and watched them as they cried in a Burger King parking lot. 

 

            She also doesn’t know just exactly when daddy would be back and it was a shame because she misses him dearly.

 

            Still, there are many new friends around who are so fun to be with. They come and stay in their house for hours, eat and laugh and cry with mommy while Morgan watches, silent, contemplating. Waiting.

 

            And when Morgan gets tired of watching, of waiting, she decides to find a place to sleep on.

 

            “-but he had conveniently forgotten that he had to ask permission from the ambassador…”

 

            She climbs up carefully, pulling herself up after making sure her grip is tight, just like daddy has taught her.

 

            “Morgan, baby…”

 

            Her mommy makes a move to come and get her, no doubt she will take her back to her room and make her stay there because it’s dark outside now. So Morgan decides that she needs to be quick and takes the surface she was holding with her as she hastily burrows under, what turns out to be, a metal arm.

 

            It doesn’t exactly feel like daddy’s Ironman suit, but the cool metal feels similar under her cheek and Morgan holds onto it with both arms and closes her eyes tight, making sleepy noises so that mommy will believe her asleep and leave her there.

 

            “Bucky, I’m so sorry I will take her.”

 

            “It’s quite, ok, ma’am," answers a gruff voice. The voice is warm unlike the arm but somehow a lot like daddies, his chest grumbles and Morgan feels... right.

 

            The arm around her tightens carefully, just like daddy’s does whenever Morgan decides that it’s nap time during their “garage hours”. Morgan peeks up to the owner of the arm and is met up with a head full of messy hair, messier than her carefully-done braids at least, and a kind smile behind them.

 

            In his arms, she dreams of Ironman.

 

            *

 

            Captain America visits Morgan’s mom every two weeks and almost every time he brings Bucky with him much to her delight. She likes the captain like all the other kids in her new kindergarten, it’s not hard for even a child like her to see why Sam Wilson deserves to be called the Captain, even though daddy had always talked about him as the Falcon and had shown her various blueprints for wings.

 

            If only she was allowed in the work room with daddy’s tools, she could build him new wings, but mommy won’t let her anywhere near a chainsaw.

 

            Mommy offers Sam and Bucky coffee and gives Morgan a juice box as Morgan gingerly climbs up to the nearest stool next to Bucky. They have moved to a penthouse near Stark Industries now that it’s just her and mommy, though uncle Rhodey stays over a lot.

 

            “I was thinking about visiting Wakanda sometime next week, the pinkie is giving me trouble again.”

 

            Morgan watches, with a straw held between her teeth, as Captain America reaches out to hold Bucky’s metallic pinkie, but the knuckles refuse to budge. Mommy looks at them in consideration, half a banana in her hand and the other on the counter so she can chop them up star-shaped the way Morgan likes them.

 

            “Morgan can help you," she says offhandedly as she kneels down in search of some honey.

 

            She watches Sam and Bucky look at each other, Sam's hand on Bucky's real wrist. Morgan knows mommy's is a genuine offering, she also knows many adults refuse to get help from little children and her intellect will seem like a joke to many men as she grows up. In her house, Morgan is allowed to all technological advances Stark Industries has to offer and she knows how to use most of them, making an effort to learn even with daddy not being here to explain how they work.

 

            No matter, she is a Stark, she knows how to figure shit out. 

 

            Bucky looks at her with big brown eyes again, perhaps noticing how defensive she seems to have got, the same open expression on his face like the first time they looked at each other in the eye and then slowly, Buck puts his arm up on the counter, right next to her apple juice and star-shaped bananas.

 

            “Be careful with it, or it might tickle you awake when you try to sleep on it the next time”.

 

            She runs up to her room to get her screwdriver as they laugh warmly. She is even allowed to chose all the pizza toppings after she successfully fixes Bucky's injured finger.

 

            *

 

            She comes home from the first day of elementary school, backpack, oat and uniform jacket thrown on every possible surface in their cozy entry.

 

            Inside Captain America is watching a movie together with Wanda and Peter, as Bucky snoozes on their couch like a big old cat.

 

            She runs inside to her room without greeting any of them and comes back with her ironman blanket. She carefully arranges it to cover Bucky's legs, standing on her tippy toes and motioning the others to be quiet as well with her hands. Once her task is over she stays like that, hovering, unsure. The metal arm, now an off white color thanks to Shuri's newest design, gleams under the afternoon sun. She knows it to be cold and warm at the same time, sometimes she physically aches for it.

 

            Bucky opens one eye and offers her the arm.


End file.
